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Monthly Archives: May 2017

Rick Teasley was excellent once again, and this time was backed up by his offense, specifically Aharon Eggleston and Olmo Rosario, to help Somerset take their fifth straight game in a 5-1 win over the Bridgeport Bluefish on Saturday night.

At the start of the year, it would have been easy to dismiss the 26-year-old left-hander as not having much of a chance to make the team given the extraordinarily deep staff and his relative lack of experience in comparison.

However, manager Brett Jodie made a good point after the game, recalling that he’d found success with similarly inexperienced arms like Matt Zielinski, David Harden and others.

“I felt very strong about him coming in, and he looked probably better than I thought he may in camp,” Jodie said. “I told him he deserved to be in the rotation in camp, but he hadn’t pitched this long of a season before, so we wanted to start him out in the ‘pen and work him in slowly. Obviously, he’s in (the rotation) probably a little bit faster than we wanted, but he’s done a good job…I’ll tell you what, he’s throwing the ball well. He’s keeping people off-balance, spotting it up, not scared to throw in. He makes it a difficult AB in there.”

For Teasley, who had last pitched in the Frontier League and topped out at Low-A in one season with the Tampa Bay Rays organization, his goal was simple at the start of spring training.

“I came here hoping to make the team,” he said.

“I knew I was pitching against guys with a lot of experience, and I knew I just wanted to come here, throw well in spring training, and earn a spot. I was put in the bullpen; I said what’s my role, let me do that right now, and hopefully I can get in that starting rotation. When I get out there, I just try to compete out there, one pitch at a time. Sometimes I get emotional out there, but I get pumped up, and I’m trying to win games. Pitching against guys with this much experience, it teaches me a lot about what I’ve got, so it gives me a lot more confidence to throw every pitch I’ve got exactly where ‘Donnie’ sets up, and I’ve been having fun with it so far.”

And so too have the fans been having fun with Teasley, who was greeted with a standing ovation from the capacity crowd after he left following 7 1/3 scoreless frames.

“We’ve been waiting for the weather to get good enough to have that kind of a crowd on a big fireworks night, and they were great,” he said. “They were loud all night, they were supportive. Coming off the mound, they were all clapping. It was fun to be a part of that, and it was fun to pitch tonight for sure.”

It was fun to hit tonight as well, apparently. Somerset smacked 11 hits off of Bridgeport pitching — remarkably all on singles — and had Aharon Eggleston drive in two runs and Olmo Rosario drive in three.

“I did all right, I missed some pitches, but just had some good at-bats, and Olmo came up with second and third one time I didn’t get it in (and delivered),” Eggleston said. “We all have faith in the guys behind us, and Olmo came in and stepped up behind me.”

If there is a concern for Somerset at the moment, albeit an admittedly silly one, it’s that this feels as though, like last year’s group, this is a streaky team. Well, maybe not to everyone…

“I don’t feel like it’s a streaky team, but I know it looks like we are because we lose five and win four or five, and we’ve done that a couple times,” Jodie said. “Hopefully, it’s streaky in the right direction. Even when we lost those games, I feel like we gave away one or two of them recently. We’re going to be in games…I don’t think we’re going to boat race anybody, this league is too good for that…I do think we’ll have a chance to win every night. I feel good about what we’re putting on the hill, I feel good about the lineup, I feel good about the defense. I feel good about the completeness of the team, and you would think that would keep you able to avoid the negative streaks. Sometimes, in baseball, that happens. But hopefully we’ll come out on the right side of things.”

Streaky?

“Our pitching has been amazing and consistent all year, and we can always count on them,” Eggleston said. “Hitting wise, we’ve been doing a lot better job of scoring early. We’d been getting no-hit through the sixth, seventh and eighth for God knows how many times. I feel if we score early and get some runs on the board, we’ll start doing better throughout the year.”

The door was closed to Brett Jodie’s office for a long time after Friday night’s game.

On Saturday, a simple visit to the clubhouse would show that the first locker to the left when you walked in, Bryan LaHair’s, was empty.

But what happened in-between was a bit cloudy until now.

LaHair, often considered a leader of the team, and an Atlantic League All-Star just last season, was placed on the suspended list this afternoon and is not expected to be with the club for the remainder of the season.

The former major-league All-Star had not performed up to the potential he showed last year, with his .228 average putting him second from the bottom on the team, combined with no home runs and four RBI in 92 at-bats this season. LaHair had been granted part of the brief Sugar Land trip to fly home to see his family, and had flight issues upon his return to Somerset yesterday, which in part kept him out of the lineup.

Jodie spoke to LaHair last night, with the intent being to gauge where he was at and to suggest that, if only temporarily, he may see a slight reduction in playing time as he worked through his struggles at the plate.

“First of all, I loved what he did for us last year and what he did for us while he was here this year,” said Patriots manager Brett Jodie.

“The immediate conversation yesterday was about his overall mindset, how he was feeling. I know he had just went home to see his family…just where he his mind was overall, that was my intention. During that conversation, we talked about how, in his absence, there had been some other guys who had stepped up. Moving forward, potentially, playing time could possibly be diminished. I’m not talking about (him playing) one time a week, I’m talking four-five times a week…I don’t think he was happy about that.”

“He wants to be an everyday player, and I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve to be, but I also have to reward people that are doing the job right now. I always like to let people know where I stand and what my thought process is, and to see if we could help him get through it, because I want to help him get accumulate the numbers he wants to accumulate and get through any mental barriers or physical things…any way that we can help him. Obviously it’s been a frustrating season for him so far, personally. Not that he’s outwardly showing it, but he wants to be off to a hotter start than that. That was the intention of the meeting, but for whatever reason it turned into a decision of whether we wanted him anymore or if he wanted to be here and vice versa, and he chose to leave.”

There was a sense of disappointment in speaking to Jodie — who had developed a good relationship with LaHair over the past season and a half, as many in the clubhouse and around the team had — that things had come to this. To be clear, LaHair was a well-respected teammate and typically a gregarious guy who was unfailingly pleasant to deal with.

“I loved what he did for our organization, I loved what he did for me personally and I loved what he did for these guys,” Jodie said. “I really do. I told him that…I don’t know if he heard it, but I respect him a lot as a player and as a person. I told him right when he left, ‘I’m always going to like you, I’m always going to remember the time we had together, because it really meant a lot to me.’ It might not mean anything to you — and I said that to him — but that’s the way I feel and that’s the way I want to remember you, because I don’t want to let a bad conversation turn into a negative thing.”

From a baseball standpoint, Somerset must move on. The Patriots just re-signed Kyle Roller, which truthfully wasn’t going to affect LaHair’s playing time, but are down Carlos Guzman, who will miss a week or so with minor hamstring stiffness.

“We do have Roller, and we brought Golson in, who can play all three outfield spots,” Jodie said.

“Really, with Grayson…he’s using all fields and he looks comfortable out there and we know he can play well defensively, plus with Pacchioli’s contributions lately, we’re just going to use those guys a little more often. Roller will be in there, Guzman will be back soon, we’ll start to work in Golson, so I think it kind of works out to where we can mix and match some people a little bit.”

Former major-leaguer Mitch Atkins turned in a strong start for Somerset on Friday night, allowing two runs on a walk and four hits over six and a third inning while striking out eight to help Somerset to a 7-2 win over the Bridgeport Bluefish on Friday night.

Atkins gave up a long home run to dead center in the second inning to Tony Abreu, but managed to largely settle in after that to give his team a quality start.

“I was just trying to go in with a fastball glove side,” Atkins explained. “It kind of wasn’t there all game for me, so after he hit the home run, I stayed away from the pitch. Everything else was working pretty well.”

For batterymate Yovan Gonzalez, there was just that one “mistake” from Atkins, and it was smooth sailing from there.

“He was really on today, everything was really good,” Gonzalez said. “Other than (the homer), he did really good. He was commanding; first pitch strikes, he was hitting his spots. We had a good talk in the pitcher’s meeting and we followed what the pitching coach said, so we were going to be just fine…he’s a veteran guy and he knows how to handle himself after a big homer early in the game. He kept working. For us, for the team, we needed him to go five or six. We’ve got a great bullpen, and he did that.”

Of course, Atkins’ outing would have been somewhat lost in the shuffle had his offense not come through in a big way. Aharon Eggleston, Carlos Guzman, Olmo Rosario and Gonzalez all plated runs for the Patriots, but Chris Grayson delivered the most memorable blow with his first home run of the season.

Grayson, who is used to being an everyday outfielder, took some time to adjust to his role, but since doing so has turned his season around.

“I credit everything to that,” he said. “It’s tough playing every day and getting a game here, wait a few games, play another game…it’s hard to get your mojo going. I’m a guy who feeds off energy and consistency, I’m used to being an everyday guy. But the coaches, we had a talk at the start of the season about what my role would be, and I told them I’d embrace it. I want to be here with my guys, and I’m going to support them and I’m going to cheer them on, but I’m also going to pay attention. That way, when my number is called, I know what’s going on and I can go out there and perform, no pressure.”

Patriots manager Brett Jodie acknowledged how pleased he was with Grayson’s professionalism.

“I really appreciate his attitude, being a great teammate,” he said.

“I talked to him — and I try to talk to everybody and let them know where they stand — after spring and told him he had a good spring, and we know he’s used to being an every day guy, but right now he’s not going to be. He’s been great about it. He hasn’t complained. You give him opportunities, like we did with (Justin) Pacchioli. Pacchioli ran with them early, and Grayson’s kind of taken some late here. That’s good to see. He was a huge reason we won that game in Sugar Land the other day, and he had another big game today. I like the way he’s swinging it, and we’ve got to find a way to get him in there right now.”

It is Mitchapalooza, after all. So, Somerset’s going streaking. That’s four straight wins for them, so they’ve skipped the quad and the gymnasium and gone straight to first place.

“I think we’ve been playing well all year,” Atkins said. “We’ve been in a lot of games, and even if we’re down late, we always make a run. I think we just keep playing until the last out.”

Five full seasons of covering Ducks-Patriots games, and I don’t have much left to say either.

In yet another incredible ballgame between the two premier franchises in the Atlantic League with as much intrigue, drama and twists and turns as you’ll see at any level of the game, Somerset mounted an improbable ninth inning comeback against former Cy Young Award Winner Eric Gagne only to lose in another heartbreaker, 4-3, in walk-off fashion at Bethpage Ballpark on Saturday night.

Somerset’s Rick Teasley and Long Island’s Dennis O’Grady were locked in an exceptional pitcher’s duel, with the latter carrying a no-hitter into the eighth inning, while Teasley had only truly made one mistake, a 0-0 pitch with one out in the fifth to Alex Burg that went over the fence in left field.

“It was an 0-0 fastball, he’s a bottom of the order hitter, so you just try to get ahead there,” Teasley said. “But he ambushed it, went for it, and hit a home run. That’s what professional hitters do.”

Somerset broke up O’Grady’s no-hitter in the eighth and loaded the bases with nobody out off of Chin-Hui Tsao, but couldn’t plate a run. Anthony Vega’s RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the eighth seemed like a critical insurance run with Gagne coming in for the ninth. It also ended Teasley’s night, which was an excellent one; 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 9 K.

“You always want the W, for sure, for the team,” Teasley said. “I just felt good. I tried to go out there and take it one pitch at a time, tried not to let the game speed up. I felt good in the bullpen and my workouts between starts this week. I felt like I was keeping the ball down and everything was in sync, so I was definitely happy.”

Incredibly, Gagne didn’t record an out.

The Patriots rallied and seemed like they’d be well on their way to a badly-needed comeback win after Jerry Sands doubled, Olmo Rosario singled, Carlos Guzman plated them both with an RBI double, Adam Donachie knocked in Guzman to give Somerset the lead and Aharon Eggleston then walked to end Gagne’s night.

That set the stage for Ronnie Shaban, who hadn’t allowed a run in his first eight outings with the club, to shut the door on the Ducks. However, that didn’t go according to plan either.

Angelo Songco drew a leadoff walk, and Elmer Reyes followed that with a single to put runners on the corners with nobody out for Marc Krauss, who missed a walk-off homer by inches, but scored Songco to tie the game, 3-3.

Alex Burg was intentionally walked to load the bases, and then Patriots manager Brett Jodie did something he’d never previously done in his five-year managerial career. He used a fifth infielder, calling in Jerry Sands from right field to come to the dugout, put on an infielder’s glove, and stand between first and second as sort of a right side shortstop as Shaban was set to face Delta Cleary, Jr.

“Right there, if Cleary shoots one over the infielder’s heads, it’s ballgame anyway,” Jodie said. “No outs, you’re coming home, there’s no other play you can make. The only thing you’re giving up is a potential sac fly, but you’re probably not getting that guy either unless it’s a weak fly ball you can come up on. Shaban has a good fastball that has good life down and a split, so we’re trying to induce a ground ball to make the play at home. Once you get that first out, you can put them back to normal and play for two. I’ve never done that before, but it seemed like the right to do there, so we did it.”

It worked. Cleary grounded out to shortstop Scott Kelly, who threw home. Shaban then induced a seemingly taylor-made 4-6-3 double play that was hit sharply to Tyler Bortnick, but the ball ate him up, bounced away, and the Ducks walked off with another win.

Jodie said after the game that his team has to get better in a lot of aspects of the game, and that if you make fundamental mistakes, it’ll cost them ballgames. And it has. But Jodie also told his team after the game to keep their heads up and to come out strong tomorrow in the series finale.

Even after that difficult of a defeat, the vibe in the clubhouse wasn’t as bad as you might think.

“Guys are bummed out a little bit about the last two games,” Teasley said. “But we know if we keep putting it together, we ‘re coming back at the end of games, we’re swinging it at the end, we’re pitching well…it all evens out over the course of a season. I don’t think anyone’s too down. Yeah, it’s upsetting, but we are all professionals and we know it all evens out, we’re a very good team and we’ll be there at the end.”

One pitch was the difference between a win and a loss for the Somerset Patriots tonight.

Admittedly, in his first save situation of the season, Jon Hunton struggled on Friday night, but he seemed to have done enough to have nailed down a much-needed win against the Long Island Ducks.

Home plate umpire John Grasso didn’t agree. Hunton’s 1-2 offering to Delta Cleary, Jr. with the bases loaded, two outs and Somerset up 3-2 n the bottom of the ninth appeared to potentially catch the right edge of home plate with the left-handed batter up, but Hunton wasn’t given the benefit of the doubt on the call, one he very clearly wanted.

Cleary hit an infield single, Giovanny Alfonzo walked it off with another, and a big road win turned into a nightmare loss real fast for those in the visiting clubhouse on Friday.

“You make your pitch to where it’s a strikeout or a weak hit or whatever, weak contact, you make it and you expect to be given it,” Hunton said. “It’s hard when it doesn’t go your way. That’s the nature of the beast, I guess. It’s a tough loss for sure, a tough one to swallow.”

Clearly.

“It’s tough, we played a pretty good game,” said Patriots manager Brett Jodie. “(Starter) Mitch (Atkins) threw a pretty good game, the bullpen did a pretty good job and we even had some times to add later on…they had some good swings on the ball and we made some good plays.”

True. All true. But that pitch…to lose it like that, that’s the kind of loss where things can really snowball, can feel like it’s more than just one crooked number in the bad column. How do they make sure that doesn’t happen?

“Tomorrow’s a new day, so it’s a new game,” he said. “It’s over, it happened. We have to just pick it up tomorrow and move past it and hope that things will go our way or we don’t have to get into a situation like this again…especially for me as a reliever/closer, I’m probably not going to throw tomorrow, but you’ve got to let this one go even though it’s a tough one and it’s hard. We’ll pick it up together. This one slipped away from us, but we’ll get back at it tomorrow.”